The Greatest Ever

Abyss & Saint

Ch 22: Abyss & Saint

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During the raid on Ishtar Familia...

Deep down at the bottom of the abyss, everything was silent. Bleak, cold, and nerve-wracking silence. A deathly silence like no other, pitch dark like the blackest of black. It was intense with a heavy atmosphere enveloping the entire place. Above all else, it was sinister, and horror-filled darkness that could not be described in words.

Time seemed to have been frozen with no sense of passing. It could be one hour, or hundred years, all passing within moments. The distance seemed to have been folded, endlessly vast or narrowly confined, nothing could be perceived.

In this place where everything seemed to have lost all meaning... an invisible tremor tore through. A tremor that lifted the gloominess, even if for just an instant. A tremor with no physical force or exertion but its advent changed the atmosphere. It remained silent and depressing but that vast darkness brought with it a newfound pressure.

It appeared as if something woke up after a long slumber, an ancient being filled with power and majesty. Following the spread of coercion, everything all around started trembling. Whatever could be seen and whatever that could not be seen, everything tried to get itself together but couldn't stop palpitating despite all their efforts.

In this heavy darkness, filled with pressure, an eye opened. Filthy, spiritless eye with glazed complexion. Only an old man on the verge of death would possess such an eye, an old man who had seen the passing of innumerable years. With crimson red pupil surrounded by a strange hue, this eye looked every bit as ferocious and deep as it seemed tired and devoid of life but above all else... it was massive. Big enough that the entirety of Orario would probably be able to comfortably fit in. It opened, gazing somewhere above with a thoughtful look, it looked and looked, and eventually, an almost imperceptible glint flashed within. Eventually, after some time, it closed, bringing with it all the pressure back.

The deathly silence devoid of anything once again enveloped the place with no one noticing anything amiss except for one old man.

"Why...?"

It was Ouranos who kept seated on his throne looking downwards with a solemn, piercing gaze. He had been watching over the dungeon for over 1000 years now and not once in all that time did that 'thing' woke. It probably hadn't awoken for 10s of thousands of years. It kept sleeping, free of all worldly matters.

"What happened, Ouranos?"

He wasn't alone. In the chamber he sat, one more being stood right below the stairs looking up at him. Clothed in black, head to toe, he gazed at Ouranos with a questioning look. He had been serving Ouranos for a long time now and yet this was the first time he saw him so anxious and on edge.

Just what had he seen or observed to adorn that kind of expression?

"......Nothing..."

Ouranos looked up in deep thought, muttering in a deep breath.

"Nothing at all..."

.....................

A MASSIVE scar could be seen lying on and beyond the Horizon, so long and so wide, it seemed to be stretching all the way to the end of the world. Situated right at the 'edge' of the mortal realm, this place reeked of evil and corruption. How deep it was, no one could be certain since no one ever made it that far and if someone did, they never returned.

Surrounding this 'world scar' was a piece of land, a land completely different from any other in the entire world. At a glance, all that could be seen were strange trees and plants, so hideous that they very much looked like fiends and devils. Twisting around each other, this was 'like' a forest with leaves and branches lined up with thorns of various sizes, resembling the fangs of abyssal creatures.